Prodigy
by Skuzzbucket
Summary: The two smartest kids in Konoha never really hung out.  Not very smart of them, really.
1. Chapter 1

Prodigy

Unofficial Soundtrack

Ban the Tube Top- Reel Big Fish

Battle of Who Could Care Less- Ben Folds Five

Paper Doll- Louis XIV

Pushover- Etta James

"So if we work at it, we should be able to finish these reports by Monday."

"Sakura, they aren't due for another month."

"Yeah, but if we finish now, that's another month we don't have to spend worrying about it."

"Who sez I'm worrying about it now." Muttered Shikamaru under his breath.

How Ino had convinced him that Sakura was the right person to help him with this damn thing, he had no idea.

Four days ago, the Hokage had pretty much told Shikamaru he could either submit his mission reports or submit to some serious community service, served in the form of the Hokages punching bag.

One thing had led to another, and Shikamaru had naturally asked his teammates for help. Ino, of course, had boys to wow, and Chouji brought up an issue with a final piece of barbecue that he was still sore about. So it had looked like Shikamaru was on his own. Bad news, because Shikamaru knew himself well enough to know he never got anything accomplished without someone to kick him in the ass.

And Ino had suggested Sakura.

Sakura was the biggest busybody Shikamaru knew. She was annoying, self righteous, bossy, overconfident, and didn't listen.

In a word, perfect.

But that didn't mean he had to like it.

"Look, can't we just kinda, you know, EASE ourselves into it?" Shikamaru whined.

"No." Said Sakura, brooking no argument.

It had been one day.

Sakura was ready to KILL him.

He asked for her help, she obliged, and now he was sabotaging the proceedings any way he could. He skipped meeting times, he forgot details, he spilled her coffee (double shot espresso) on the paper.

Sakura had dealt with a great many annoying men in her life. Naruto was obnoxious. Sasuke was emotionally stunted and, frankly, a prick. Kakashi was a perv and a layabout. Lee was sweet, but overbearing and in serious need of some ADD meds.

But Shikamaru took the cake. Lazy, whining, good for nothing bastard that he was, he managed to irk her to the highest degree possible while at the same time expending the least amount of effort.

The worst was the way he kept distracting her.

"I still say that society operates on an individual basis and not on a communal one." He said. They'd had that out last night before they left the office.

"And I still say that our personal society proves that otherwise. Shinobi villages operate on a community focused basis. Our economy is based entirely on the idea of spreading the wealth- no matter the pay for a mission, all the proceeds go to the village coffers, to be dealt out in rank appropriate pay. Shinobi are taught to die for their villages goals, and several have in the time you and I have known each other."

"True, but our village also encourages direct disobeying of orders in appropriate situations."

"Such as?"

"Well, what about your sensei's famous 'worse than trash' motto? It's become something of a rallying cry."

"I don't see how stepping forward to save your friends proves your theory about individualist ideals present in shinobi villages."

"If one saves ones comrades AT THE RISK OF THE MISSION, which is exactly what Kakashis little phrasing is about, then it's placing the individual, that is the endangered shinobi, above the community, which is the village and by proxy the mission."

"Doesn't it seem as though the desire to save a teammate could be construed as a desire to save another village citizen? Besides, it could also be for the same principle as tracker ninja, to keep information from falling into enemy hands."

"Semantics." Said Shikamaru, waving it away.

"You can't use semantics as an out all the time, Shikamaru. The spin one puts on a fact is almost as important as the fact itself. Without opinions, our argument has no meaning."

Shikamaru stared at her for a minute, and then started making a low barking sound. It took Sakura a minute to realize he was laughing. A real laugh, not a deprecating chuckle or a snicker, but a real belly laugh.

"What's so funny?" She said, flushing a little. 

"Hehe… oh." He wiped away a tear from his eye. "I've never heard that point before. Whenever I used the _'semantics'_ line, Asuma or Chouji always got too scared to continue. I have to admit, Sakura, this is the most fun I've had in a long time."

Sakura blushed a little more. And then realized that he had, once again, made her go off track.

It was day two.

They had made it though about 45.3 of the reports, according to Shikamarus estimation. Sakura had been called away briefly for a small local mission, and would be back later tonight.

And Shikamaru was surprised to find himself, of all things, bored.

This was a new experience. Shikamaru couldn't ever recall being bored. It was a strange feeling, a sense of _pointlessness_, of waiting for something he didn't know he'd lost. He idly tried finishing a few more reports to pass the time (he'd never had to occupy himself before, either) but of course that didn't work, since he didn't want to do them anyway.

He got up and left the office, shutting the door.

Hopping out a window in the hall, he flitted down the building until he reached street level, and strolled idly through the village. When he reached his favorite hill and sat to stare at the clouds, it was with a sense of relief.

For a moment.

_The little bitch took away my god damn clouds._ He thought, uncharacteristic anger rising in him.

_My GOD DAMN CLOUDS_. He sat upright, furious. He started pacing back and forth with nervous energy.

Now what did he do? He'd be damned if he went back and waited, because he wasn't that pathetic. He couldn't stare at his clouds and the fact was that there was no-one else in the village smart enough to carry a conversation with him. At least, till he got stuck in a room with Sakura.

No shougi to be had. Asuma wasn't around anymore. He spared a moment to think of his sensei, as he did every time the mans name entered his speech.

Hmm. Maybe there was something he could do, at that.

Sakura walked into the room expecting Shimakaru not to be there, which was exactly what she got. For someone so intelligent, he sure was easy to predict. It was nice, in a way. None of the other men in her life seemed to operate on any form of reliable script.

So she turned without a sigh or a complaint and, without knowing it, followed almost exactly the same route Shikamaru had taken to his hill. But, to her surprise, he wasn't there either.

It was almost sundown, and the shadows were very long. Sakura had always liked this time of day. Right before the sun set the quality of light seemed to change from the softer light of afternoon to a brown amber, as though the whole world was encased in honey. The long black shadows added form to it, making the landscape into a network of criss-crossing black on gold. Sakura wondered if Shikamaru spent so much time staring at the clouds that he failed to see what the sky could make the earth look like.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, she sat to consider just where Shikamaru may have gone. Notoriously, if anyone needed him he'd be either here or at his house, sleeping. Or, maybe, on the Nara deer ranch. But the ranch was a longer way away than she was prepared to search, he was known to stay out of his house to avoid his mother, and he obviously wasn't here.

Leaning back on the grass, Sakura let her mind open to the possibilities. Where may he have gone?

Then she wondered why she was so concerned with finding him. The day was nearly over anyway.

She'd found herself looking forward to the end of the mission more than usual. Time with Shikamaru was restful. She knew she was more than a little loud and demanding, probably as a result of spending so much time around people who were even louder. But with Shikamaru she was finding that she didn't have to yell or screech to get a point across, and even when she did it didn't seem to offend him. He just bore it. Compared to life with Naruto and Kakashi he was like a drink of cool water standing next to a plate piled high with hot peppers.

Maybe it was because he spent so much time just letting things happen? Perhaps, under all that bad attitude, he was an optimist. If everything would turn out okay, maybe that meant there was time to slow down? Yawning, Sakura noticed the idle way the clouds billowed in the breeze. They moved so slowly, but every time she restarted a circuit, she saw they were completely different. Almost unrecognizable.

And it was about then that Sakura fell asleep.

It was day four, around midday.

Shikamaru and Sakura were both very uncomfortable.

It had something to do with the fact that they were both starting to realize that they were attracted to the other one. It also had something to do with the cramped space, and the fact that, as happens in these little situations, attempts to diffuse the tension turn into flirts.

But it had everything to do with the fact that Shikamaru had found Sakura last night, picked her up, and carried her home while she slept, depositing her in bed without so much as waking her parents.

Sakura really couldn't deal with that.

It was the kind of thing little girls wished for. It was cheesy, sappy, and cliché, but there it was. Of course, in her minds eye it had always been Sasuke who did it, even after he left. Say what you like about the man, she thought, he made good fantasy fodder. Her mistake in childhood had been confusing fantasy with reality.

But here her fantasy had sorta come true, though it couldn't be with a stranger man. Shikamaru was Sasuke's opposite. He was decidedly not a romantic figure, he lacked any ambition, he had no dark past. The fact that he'd gone so far as to extend the effort of carrying her said something, in that light. So Sakuras realization that the knowledge made her feel all warm and gooey inside (eugh) confused her a bit.

For Shikamaru's part, he had less experience hiding the truth from himself. Sakura was in his thoughts most of the time since this whole fiasco started. He found himself having conversations with her in his head that continued or expounded upon points they'd already finished with. It had only been a few days, and tomorrow was the last one, but Shikamaru was pretty certain he wanted to ask Sakura out on a date. Or something, he'd never been good at this sort of thing. Although he was a little proud of last night.

That hadn't been in the script. When he was walking back and saw Sakura sleeping where he usually sat, he debated waking her. The REALLY cheeseball thing he could do would be to lean over and kiss her, but he wasn't that much of a sap. There was a way to go about these things to avoid all the dumb confusion and drama that seemed to plague relationships wherever he looked, and as near as he could tell it seemed to be honesty. So, instead of waking her, he carried her home and left her a brief note explaining. It was the kind of thing bad romance novels were rife with, and as such he was betting Sakura would get all giddy when he did it.

What he didn't expect was for her to react by becoming all closed off. He'd tried engaging her in conversation a few times, but her heart wasn't in it. She was, on reflection, probably pretty confused. Shikamaru could see that she felt similarly to him on the subject of their relationship, or she wouldn't be all worried right now. So the only thing to do was wait it out.

But he only had until tomorrow morning.

As they finished, Sakura wondered what to do. She knew she was being obstinate, but the flirting and joking with Shikamaru had left her with a sense of comfort, and she wasn't ready to lose that yet. And she knew it was flirting, all the philosophy and pseudo intellectualism that spewed from them was no less flirting for lacking innuendo. But they now had no more excuse to be in the same room together.

Well, maybe there was one thing she could do.

As they gathered up the papers, Sakura breached the silence. "So where were you yesterday?" Shikamaru looked up, confused.

"When I came back, you weren't here. You weren't at your hill, either." She blushed a little bit.

He looked at her considering, as if debating whether it was even worth talking about. "I was playing shougi."

"Where?" Sakura asked. When he looked at her, she occupied herself with the papers. "Well, normally I'd thought you'd rather be watching clouds than doing anything else."

He seemed to think about things again, briefly. His expression never flickered once.

"Not anymore." He said, gathering up the remaining sheaf's.

"Whats that mean?"

"I couldn't watch the clouds the other day. I tried, you know." He put them in a manila folder. "But it just wasn't the same. It was a great day for it, too. But somehow it didn't seem interesting."

"Why?" She asked, as they walked out into the hall.

"Probably because before then I'd been talking to you." He said, laying out the facts. Sakuras head jerked around.

"Whats that got do do with it?" She asked warily.

"Well, frankly clouds aren't great conversationalists, and it's not a skill our village trains people in very much." He said.

"But we were just talking!"

"Maybe, but it was FUN. It was intriguing and involving. Sakura, I'd like to talk to you more often, in all honesty, if that's how it's going to be every time."

Bewildered, Sakura looked away. "That's sweet of you. But what reason do we have to be around each other after this?"

"Well," said Shikamaru, swallowing the lump in his throat, "You could let me take you out. Tonight? 7:30?"

-AAAAAAAAAND scene. The cliffhanger (such as it is) will help me come up with ways to approach the next chapter. Really. I swear. -Skuzz


	2. Chapter 2

Prodigy- chapter two

"Good job, as usual. Dismissed."

Shikamaru nodded and turned to leave, his team following. "Oh, Nara." Said Tsunade, as though in afterthought, "Where are those reports I asked you for? I thought I told you to have them to me by today."

Shikamaru suppressed a sigh as he turned back around. "Why don't you guys go." He said to Chouji and Ino. "I'll catch up." Uncertain but trusting, the two turned and walked out the door. Shikamaru faced the Hokage. "I don't have them."

"May I be so bold as to inquire why?" Said the woman sweetly. Shikamaru noted that she had a tendancy towards hyperbole when performing.

"Your apprentice has them." He answered reluctantly. "Or one half of them, really."

Tsunade raised her eyebrows. "How did that come to pass?"

As if she didn't know, thought Shikamaru bitterly. "When we finished up the other night she forgot to bring the half she'd taken home with her for indexing. It's still at her house."

"So go get it."

"I can't. She's on a mission. Her house is locked up."

"Doesn't your teammate have a key?"

"Sakura moved recently, Hokage-sama."

"…oh yeah. Moved out of her parents place. I'd forgotten." Tsunade tapped a finger to her lips in thought. "… Well, I can't get mad at you for something she did, I suppose. But I can warn you what will happen if you don't get those to me the second she gets back in town." Her eyes burned with sadistic hope. Shikamaru nodded tiredly.

After being dismissed, the Nara went to the same old barbecue restaurent the team always went after missions and met up with his two compatriots.

"So what'd she want?" Ino asked over the sound of Chouji's gastronomic performance.

"Nothin' much." Sighed Shikamaru, sinking into the booth and putting his head in his arms. His body felt like it was made of lead.

Chouji paused briefly in his inhalation and Ino perked up a bit. Something was off.

"Shika? What's the matter?" Ino tapped him on the forehead.

"-grunt- The Hokage's getting a little pissy about those reports is all."

"The ones you had to do with Sakura?" Asked Chouji.

"Yeah. I'll have to go to her place to pick them up when she gets back in town. That's gonna be a pain in the ass."

Ino was a talented manipulator, being an attractive woman just out of the cusp of womanhood who happened to have a doting father. And manipulation requires a talent in picking up on subtle cues.

Something was sour between Sakura and Shikamaru.

"Why's that such a big deal? She lives maybe ten minutes away from you." Chouji said.

Shikamaru groaned. "Because I asked her out and she said no."

Ringing silence.

"WHAT?" Ino screamed, torn between concern for both her friends and her instincts as a gossip.

Shikamaru raised one arm limply and vaguely described the arc of events with it. "We flirted while we were working on the reports. We finished. She liked me. I liked her. I asked her out. She said no." On no, his arm flapped like rubber back onto the table. "So now whenever we see each other things get all weird."

Chouji stared angrily at Shikamarus hand. It had fallen on the barbecue. "Yo. Shikamaru." The Nara's head twisted his way, and the enshadowed eye glared out at Chouji like a hard little diamond. The Akimichi elected to go without for a day. Sighing, Chouji put down his chopsticks. "I'll go pick them up for you if you want."

Shikamaru shook his head, rolling it on the table back and forth. "Nah, this has to stop. We're colleagues- we have to be able to maintain a professional relationship. I'll go tomorrow night when she gets back and talk to her." Chouji nodded, concerned but not too worried. This was Shikamaru, after all. He had a pretty thick skin for this sort of thing.

Ino however wasn't convinced. She peered at Shikamaru out of the corner of her eye as the conversation moved to safer topics.

The trek back into Konoha always felt like it took forever. Leaving could be exciting, because of all the expectation and interest in the mission. But coming back you were tired and spent and ready for sleep in your own bed, and it was no fun to wait. Squads typically walked back in too, since there was no reason to burn chakra for speed.

"My feet hurt!" Sakura groaned. Her greatest friend and confidant barked and hopped up on her lap. "Oh yeah, some help you are." She spat. Boomer barked again and snuggled into her- which was funny since she was practically as big as the ninja was.

Sakura sat in her new living room in her new apartment on her new couch, which was all new to her since she'd only had the place furnished over the course of her latest mission. While some liked to go out and celebrate coming back alive afterwards, Sakura liked to go home and have a night to herself. She was usually too tired after coming home to go out partying.

The bulky Golden Retriever was relaxingly warm and her breathing was regular and comforting, and Sakura was just drifting off to sleep when the bell rang. Groaning, Sakura shifted the weight ("Get over, you lump!") and got up, yawning. Putting on a bulky shirt over her bra and pulling on some jeans, she slapped her feet across the floor. The door rang again. "Jeez, I'm coming!" She said, yanking it open.

Oh, damn.

"Hi." Said Shikamaru, all business. "Mind if I come in? I'll just be a few minutes."

Sakura hesitated a moment, but then she nodded. "Sure." She stepped aside and Shikamaru strolled in. Sakura noticed that he dressed well when out of uniform- not flashy, but well. She became very conscious of the stains on her shirt from washing dishes.

"I was wondering if you finished indexing the reports." Said Shikamaru over his shoulder, still giving nothing away. Sakura nodded, also careful. "Yeah. Let me just go get them." Turning, Sakura jogged into the kitchen where the pile was, trying not to give away how quickly she wanted this to be over. In the living room she heard a loud bark, an short cry, and a loud thunk, followed by muffled protestations and happy yelps.

Coming into the room she found her oversized dog attacking Shikamaru with joyful abandon, hopping around him and jumping up to put her paws on his chest. He had clearly just gotten up after being knocked on his ass and was trying to calm the animal down so he could pet it. "OW! Hey! Hey, take it easy, fella! Calm down." He got a hand on her head and pressed downwards, scratching her behind the ears with the other hand. "That's it, pal. Easy."

"Actually, she's a girl." Said Sakura, coming out with the files under her arms. "Naruto got her for me for my birthday from the Inuzukas. I'm really more of a cat person, but she's really sweet."

Shikamaru grinned without looking at her, rubbing his hands through the shaggy fur at the sides of the ribcage. The canine groaned in pleasure. "What's her name?"

"Boomer." Said Sakura, grinning as she handed the paper to Shikamaru. "Naruto named her before I could get to her. She won't answer to anything else."

The Nara smirked. "What were you going to name her? Chavonne? Delilah?"

"Shut up! I was going to name her Kitten."

"Kitten the dog. Of course."

The two grinned at each other until they realized they were grinning at each other. An awkward air pervaded the room again.

Shikamaru stood, putting his hands in his pockets (causing Boomer to let out a disappointed woof). "Listen, before I go we should probably talk this out."

"No, Shikamaru, it's really okay-"

"Just hear me out." He said, seriously. Sakura sighed and nodded, folding her arms defensively.

"Look, I'm not going to hold your answer against you or try to convince you otherwise. You made your decision. But the two of us need to be able to work together and we need to be able to do it closely, since I know you're being groomed for future Hokageship, and I'll never get away from that building no matter how hard I try."

"No, Shikamaru, you don't-"

"I'm not finished. Anyway, I know we've both been feeling a little strange around each other since I asked you out and I just didn't want that to happen. I can't deny that I'm very interested in you." Here his eyes flashed and he locked gazes with her, and Sakura suddenly realized he was more confused than he was admitting. "But I'm not going to pursue you at the sake of our careers. So can we please put this behind us and pretend it never happened?"

Sakura studied him. He was normally a very direct person- if she hadn't spent so much time with him lately she probably wouldn't have picked up on it. But he clearly wasn't being honest about how much this bothered him.

But who was she to talk?

She nodded. "Okay. Sure."

He nodded again. "Good. I'll go. See you around, Haruno." The door closed behind him- he'd moved fast.

Sakura sank back down into the sofa. Boomer came over and laid her head on her lap, and Sakura stroked it absently. "What's wrong with me, girl?" She asked.

Shikamaru flopped onto his bed, frustrated and tense. This was why he hated falling for people- all this emotion made him tired.

He rolled over. He liked her. He liked her a LOT.

He rolled back over. Calm down. The grass is always greener. You're probably making this worse than it is. Give it a week and it'll be gone. It HAD to be gone.

Shikamaru moaned. No wonder people were always afraid to cross the line between friends and lovers. It wasn't just a small game of chance, it was an all or nothing gamble. He knew, now, that there would be no salvaging what they had before. There would always be a shade of bitterness coloring their perceptions. Whoever said it was possible to be "just friends" was an idiot. Shikamaru had somehow, someway, messed up his chances.

He twisted the other way again. Why did she say no? It had felt so clear to him- the two of them were a good pair. They got along. They understood each other. It had been COMFORTABLE. Shikamaru loved being comfortable.

He gyrated madly on his bed. Was she still waiting for Sasuke? Was there some kind of problem with him he didn't know about? Was he not being romantic enough?

He stopped. That was probably part of it. He wasn't exactly prince charming. He was way too lazy and practical to do all that silly roses and chocolate hooey.

He thought about that. Come to think of it, Sakura probably wouldn't want that anyway. She was a drama queen, but she was also a medic. She knew what was necessary and what wasn't.

Was romance necessary?

ARGH. Stop. It's done. She agreed to forget about it and that's that.

I don't WANT to forget about it.

It was your idea.

Shut up!

Shikamaru sat up. This sucked. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't watch clouds, he couldn't play shougi and he couldn't stop his face from flushing.

He went outside and lit a cigarette. He started strolling through Konoha quietly, invisible in the gloom except for a stream of white smoke.

"Shikamaru?" The smoker turned to see his two teammates walking arm in arm down the street.

He waited a moment for effect, then cocked an eyebrow. "Chouji, isn't your house back that way?" he pointed in the direction they were coming from. "And aren't your parents out on an anniversary vacation? Ino, you're dad's gonna be real mad that you're getting home this late."

Chouji and Ino grew progressively redder. "Shut up!" Ino yelled, slapping him on the arm. Shikamaru laughed.

The three fell into step, walking to Ino's house. "You coming back from Sakura's?" Asked Ino, completely transparent.

Shikamaru nodded, poker faced. "Yep."

Their sandled feet skaffed on the pavement.

Ino looked at him penetratingly. "You two cool?"

"Yeah." Completely taciturn.

They approached Ino's house.

Ino wheeled on him. "Well that SUCKS!" She yelled, breaking away from Chouji and stabbing her finger at Shikamarus chest. "I was wondering all last month what had made her so happy, and you're gonna just walk away because she's too stupid to know what she wants? COME ON, Shika! I haven't seen you interested in a girl in… well… EVER!"

"He was into you for a while, sweetness." Said Chouji, taking his girlfriends outburst in stride.

Ino stopped short. "What? Really?"

Shikamaru stepped back, straightening his shirt. "For about one year, after we became a team." He said, calmly. "But I knew you'd never go for me so I let it go. That's what I'm doing with Sakura."

Ino was torn between flattery and meddling. She settled for mild irritation. "Well, I still think you're giving up too fast. She's been very happy lately, and so have you. Giving that up because of insecurity-" she shot him a look "-is just dumb."

Ino stomped into her house and closed the door. A few minutes later she peeked back out and waved a clandestine goodbye to Chouji, and the two men walked back the way they came.

Shikamaru thanked god for a friend who knew when not to say anything. Nobody knew as much about being quiet as Chouji.

When they reached his house, Chouji smiled and turned on the doorstep. "I'll just point this out." He said, smiling. "Between not knowing what you want and denying yourself what you want… well, I think I'd rather be the first one, because the second one's a pussy." He walked in and closed the door.

"FUCK YOU, DUMBASS!" Shikamaru yelled, his hands at his mouth. He heard laughing from inside the house.

He sighed and turned around. Whatever. This was getting out of control. So much for avoiding drama with honesty.

Sakura fell into a chair in the hospital break room. Her shift was over- if she could just get out of here before someone caught her with a job to do she might make it home alive.

But it felt so good to sit…

"SAKURAAAAA!" Somewhere a wine glass broke.

Sakura jerked rudely out of her reverie, scanning the room madly for signs of incoming Ino. She saw nothing…

The door burst open and Ino strode in like a hurricane, grabbing the other girls collar and dragging her out behind her. One the way through the halls Sakura wrestled her way to standing position, but Inos grip was transferred to her wrist and she couldn't break free. "Where are we going?!" Sakura asked, still a little behind events.

"DRINKING!" Yelled Ino, punching the air.

Sakura put down the mojito. "I don't know what you're talking about." She sniffed. Ino rolled her eyes.

"Sakura, you know that time I told you how good red looked on you? We were kids and went shopping with your mom?"

Sakura nodded. "Sure."

"And do you remember how you loved the color blue and kept wearing it until I bought you a red skirt?"

Sakura nodded. "Uh-huh."

"And after that, what color do you always wear?"

Sakura sighed. "Red."

Ino slammed the table with her hand, setting her (slightly larger) collection of empty glasses ringing. "That's what I'm TALKING about! You don't know what you want, and you never have. And whenever what you want is right in front of your shnoz it falls to me, as best friend and all around good girl, to rub your nose in it."

"Charming imagery." Said the pink haired girl under her breath, taking a hefty sip of her drink.

Putting it down, empty, Sakura glared at Ino irritably. "But I seem to have done alright over the years without you around to point me in the right direction every morning, Porkface."

Ino snarled. "Chromedome!- Wait. Wait. We can't get caught up in our little game tonight."

"Oh? Is it our little game now?" Sneered Sakura over the edge of a new drink. "Shall we set a playdate so long as we're here?"

"You're a real bitch when you're drunk, you know that?"

"You're a real bitch all the time."

"God, do you really hate being helped this much?"

Sakura groaned. "You haven't even told me what it is I theoretically need help with."

Ino held up a finger. "Two words. Shikamaru Nara."

Sakura froze for a moment, then groaned again, putting her head in her hands. "God, has it gotten out? Does everybody know about this now?"

"No, but even if it did, why should it matter?"

Sakura ran her hands down her face, sighing. "How should I know? I can't-"

"Why'd you say no?" Ino asked.

The bar moved around them, indifferent to their discussion. Ino frequented a very effeminate bar filled with women and the occasional gay man as an accent piece. Angry girl pop music played in the background.

Sakura sighed. "I guess I should have figured he'd tell you, since you're his teammate and all."

"Yeah. So why did you say no?"

"I don't know, okay? I panicked."

"Panicked? He asked you on a date! What's so bad about a date?"

Sakura looked at Ino, wincing. "Because… I've never been on one before?"

She waited for the requisite laughing to end, and continued. "It's just that I spent the academy, genin and much of the chuunin period waiting around for Sasuke, and by then anyone else had moved on. And Shikamaru isn't exactly the kind of guy I expected to end up with."

Ino snickered. "What, you think you're the kind of girl he wanted? I promise you that's a no."

"What's that supposed to mea-"

"And besides, I doubt he's ever been on a date either." Sakura froze at Ino's statement. Of course. Shikamaru would be too lazy for that unless it really looked like it could go somewhere to him…

Well, shit.

"Great. Fucking great." Snarled the pink haired girl. "Maybe I should just give up on ever getting a guy at all."

Ino grinned. "Oh, come on. You can go talk to him-"

"Can't. He asked me to forget about it and I told him I would."

"Oh, like that really matters. He'll be thrilled to see you."

"It does matter. He thinks I'm not interested."

Ino leaned back, her head upside down on the back of the chair, and heaved a sigh. "Why are you fighting this so hard?"

Sakura slammed another tequila, not responding.

"You know what I think it is? I think you're still waiting around for Mr. Right."

Sakura shook her head emphatically. "Hell no. I got over Sasuke forever ago, and good riddance."

"Not Sasuke. I think you're still waiting for that space he used to fill in your head. The perfect man. There is no perfect man, Sakura. There's just men. Thankfully they make up in quantity what they lack in quality, so it's a buyers market. But you have to get out there first. Nobody is going to come and sweep you off your feet, least of all Shikamaru. And given the already exciting and dangerous nature of our lives, calm, measured men are a blessing, believe me." Ino looked up, considering. "You know, Sakura, before Chouji and I started dating we both went to Shika for advice."

Sakura looked up, surprised. "You're dating Chouji?"

"Yeah. So?" Ino's eyes bored into Sakuras. The pink haired girl shook her head. "Nevermind."

"The point is, we both asked Shika what to do about each other. He's smart and all, but sometimes I think his real talent is an ability to understand people. See, he told us both different things. Chouji was nervous about asking me, because he thought I was too pretty for him." Ino tossed her hair, smirking. "So Shika just told him to be himself and all that stuff. But I was more hung up- I was still thinking about Sasuke."

Sakura looked back up. "What'd he say to you?"

Ino smiled. "He told me people are like puzzles. No piece of a puzzle is inheritely any better than another- if you get lost looking for the best fit, you'll never find the RIGHT fit." Ino winked.

Sakura looked hard at Ino. "That's gross. He didn't really say that, did he."

Ino grinned. "Nope. He told me to stop thinking with my girl parts and start thinking with my head. But hey, same difference. Look, Sakura, I'll tell you one thing he did tell me. You have to use your head to follow your heart."

Sakura made a face. "Yuck. That sounds even less like him."

"He can be surprisingly sensitive when he needs to be. He just doesn't have a lot of patience for people who talk about themselves."

"How does he stand you?"

The graveyard was quiet except for the click of shougi pieces and the rustling of leaves.

Shikamaru sighed. "God, this is even more boring than it was when you were actually playing."

Asuma's grave had nothing to say. Shikamaru spared it a withering look, then sneezed as the incense went up his nose.

"Checkmate." He said, sliding the piece into place. Stretching, he groaned and fell back on his elbows, staring at the sky through the branches of the tree. The sun flickered green through the leaves.

"So… this is where you went the other day, huh?"

Shikamaru jerked upright, accidentally kicking over the shougi board. "GAH!" He said.

Twisting around, he saw Sakura strolling up the path to the grave. She was wearing a sundress and… well, and looked really cute.

"Don't sneak up on me like that." He said.

She shot him a superior look through her eyelashes. "Some ninja you are."

"Not on my days off I'm not. What's up? Orders?"

She flipped back her hair with one hand. "Nah. It's my day off too." She smiled.

"Who comes to graveyards on their day off?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"I'm visiting a friend."

She knelt by Asumas grave. "You really miss him, huh."

He sat up and started picking up the fallen shougi pieces. "He was a good guy."

Sakura smiled. "I usually find grave visiting a little creepy. But it's kinda sweet in your case. Next I'll be finding out you coach little league."

"No luck there. I hate kids."

"Aw, now you're all defensive."

He frowned. "Okay, that's enough."

She looked confused. "Enough what?"

"You're being really flirty, and I don't appreciate it." He dropped the last shougi piece in the bag and pulled it closed.

"I'm just-"

Shikamaru felt his blood rising. "Is this some kind of game girls play or something? You act into me, you go all cold, now you're piling it on. Whats the deal?"

"Shika, there's no need to get angry-"

The Nara didn't recall getting this mad this quickly before. "Well, it sure as hell seems like there is!"

Now Sakura was getting a little pissed, "You're out of line, Nara. You're not letting me finish."

"So I'm Nara now. Fine." He picked up the board and the bag and started stalking away.

She grabbed his arm. "Dammit, Shikamaru, I came here to ask you out! Jeez, who knew you could be such a drama queen?"

Shikamary turned and looked at her piercingly. "What's different between now and before?"

"I just had to grow up a little, that's all. The question scared me. And then you seemed to assume that it was the only answer you were ever going to get. You know, you really ought to let people finish sentences occasionally."

He winced. "So… um, when I got all mad and pissy just now… that didn't tip my hand, did it?"

"Maybe a little." She said, smirking. She edged closer, wrapping his arm around her waist with one hand. "Hey, Shika?.."

"Uh.. yeah?" He said, suddenly really nervous.

She edged closer,.. then jerked away, skipping down the path. "Pick me up tonight at eight!" She yelled over her shoulder.

Shikamaru grinned… and then it fell. "No." He said. Sakura turned, rolling her eyes. "Yeesh, what now? Do you really need to make this more complicated?"

Shikamaru strode over to her determinedly. "Not really. I'm just getting sick of all this waffling." He grabbed her around the waist and kissed her hard. When the two separated, he smirked into her face and said, "You said you have the day off. The date starts now."

Sakura laughed. "What, are we going to play shougi in the graveyard?"

"Well, to start with. Unless you have a better idea."

A pause. "You know, I really don't."


End file.
